Stop the Kelly talk

[matthstl]

This team started out like a ball of fire and now the injuries on the D side has caught up with them. Smith being out has killed this team and now you have a freshman in that is really struggling. They are so young on the D side and we have loss so many players I am not sure how you can recover from that. It is clear the depth in later part of the season becomes a major issue.

On the O side we can drive the ball on anyone but when you make the mistakes we have made it changes everything. It is almost like you have to change your playbook because you cannot protect the ball. I hear this is coaching but come on when do the players say that is my fault where is the player responsibility? In the two losses we have put up great O numbers and drove down the field but critical mistakes losing the ball it is almost unreal. Even our best ball handlers that never fumble did it vs. NW. Our best field goal kicker misses two field goals and NW kicker that never kicks the ball past 29 yards is hitting everything right down the middle???

I am upset as anyone with NW lost to me it was probably the most embarrassing loss ND has had in a long time. The end of this game made me sick to my stomach. This team played to not lose and did not play to win you can see it down the stretch. The play calling going for 2 because you have no faith of placing the ball on the ground to kick extra point you do not even see that in an average high school game. After all that we drove down the field which would have ended the game and fumble on 2 yard line. We get the ball back to run time out and give it to our most solid running back and he fumble’s the ball how is that play calling? You can argue take a knee and punt but to me the call was the right one run the ball take more time of the clock it was conservative run play with a running back that 99% of the time protects the ball.

To call for Kelly to be fired is just flat wrong. Do we not remember what the teams look like before this? The track record of poor coaches we had and getting back on that same track scares me. Yes we did we lose to team we should have beaten but if we hold onto the ball we could easily be undefeated at this time. In the eras before Kelly there were games you can almost always say we had no chance to win and then the average teams and poor teams could be losses. There has not been a game I have watch in the past few years that I did not have confidence in that we could win even the national championship game.
If Kelly leaves or is let go who is next in line? The head coaching job at ND is not an easy job due to academics. High standards became evident this year as ND places many things above football. Coaches that want a easy way out like the SEC were football and winning is number one are not looking at ND even with its traditions. Holtz left because of all these issues listed above and I am not so sure after what happen to these 5 students that Kelly is not going to be in the same boat soon.
Be careful of what you ask for!!!

 

[Lillyliverd]

matt, I agree with a lot of what you say. However, I have not been at all confident that we will win games. I think there are games where ND is vastly superior, but I have experienced embarrassing losses and I have my doubts every single time ND takes the field. ND has had issues with turnovers since BK has been there. Maybe it is bad luck. Maybe other teams turn the ball over less because they are luckier. Or maybe it has something to do with coaching. Specials teams at ND have been a joke in the Kelly years, I think it may have something to do with coaching. I would like to see BK stay, but he needs to improve.

 

[matthstl]

I do in my heart think if we had those key players on D we loss start of the year and we did no lose Smith that we could be a undeafted team. No one coach is perfect and even the best teams have some issue. One thing that amazed me in this team was coming back to be within 3 pts after all those turnovers ASU and pick 6. The team that is taken the field now has no depth and is just limping along.

Navy has to come off our schedule there are always key injuries after this game and majority of time its either linebacker like Smith or D line it is literally killing this team. I do agree with turnovers and there is something with the coaching totally agree. Maybe it is high risk O but the turnovers I see are just stupid mental mistakes. You room with a guy and all you do is catch a snap from the long snapper and you could not do it during game time it just makes you scratch your head.

 

[Irish7478]

Did I miss something? Is Smith hurt?

 

[matthstl]

SORRY HUGE MISTAKE Joe Schmitd

 

[KnuteRoc]

I'm not calling for Kelly to be fired and even if I did it would mean exactly diddly shit.

However, you point to issues that do revolve around coaching and center on the coaches choices or emphasis. If you're truly serious about ball security, then you bench a player committing more turnovers than a guy who's nickname was Tommy Turnover. I don't care if it's for a series, a quarter, a half, or a full game. What exactly has Kelly done to emphasize Ball Security? Talk about it?

Sure, you also have to point to the players in this too. But then you also have to look at how depth is being developed. Zaire didn't execute any better than Smith on the hold. Poor Morgan has had how many live game reps before Schmidt went down? Where were these guys during the easier games of the season? You know, fourth quarter, game in hand, let the youngsters get some reps? Oh I know where they were, on the fucking bench because our poor management of the game and ball control led to the game being so damn close in the 4th it was still Starter time.

IMHO it wasn't so much that a run was called, it was the type of run (trying to get the edge) and that we don't lead-block much at all, since we use no FB, the TE should be used for this purpose on very conservative run plays.

There's blame to go around big time. Why the fuck can no one on the defense besides a freshman handle the incoming signals and relay them? Because it was assigned to Schmidt? Where's the redundancy? In my time in the Army, we learned the positions around us and the positions above us so we'd be ready if the time came. How can you possibly believe as a coach that you'll not have to replace ANYONE at ANY position and not have the next guy ready to go despite his ability/skill compared to the next guy? That should be the only separation, not Football IQ, that to me falls mostly on the coaches, some on the players.

I feel Kelly is a good coach, but he has glaring weaknesses and they're being exploited by other coaches and teams in their one/two week preparations to play us. Blitz the shit out of the QB, disguise and run wrinkles off of your tendencies offensively and we can be beat. Great coaches know that you know that they know what they like to do and play off of it. I hardly ever see wrinkles out of our normal offensive set of plays. I think we did one in the ASU game that went for a huge gain, but it's very few and far between.

I don't want him fired but I do want him to be accountable for his own part. The players have to be accountable as well but you know what? It starts with the coach, if he's not accountable, why should they be? That's the message being sent and it's the wrong one.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

The guy is killing it in recruiting and lost 5 starters to academic violations. No reason for the hot seat talk.

 

[Irish7478]

The guy is killing it in recruiting and lost 5 starters to academic violations. No reason for the hot seat talk.

5 starters? Maybe 3, but we get your point. However, if we don't put a serious run together for next year, the seat will be getting pretty warm.

 

[ChicagoIrish]

The guy is killing it in recruiting and lost 5 starters to academic violations. No reason for the hot seat talk.

And shouldn't that be on Kelly as well?

Let's face it, ever since Kelly has come in, we've had our fair share of off the field distractions.

But, speaking in terms of just on the field. Not being prepared for games, mental mistakes, the large amount of turnovers, the inability to find a God damn holder, that's all on Kelly. The constant problem of this team playing down to its opponents, also on Kelly.

I'm not exactly calling for his head, but I am getting sick of the same mistakes every single season.

 

[purguy12]

No Kelly needs a big year next year. No more excuses.

 

[bksballer89]

kelly can't help golson turn the ball over less. Kelly has been fine. The turnovers is the reason this team is not 9-1 or 10-0, not kelly

 

[whywork2]

kelly can't help golson turn the ball over less. Kelly has been fine. The turnovers is the reason this team is not 9-1 or 10-0, not kelly

You and I part ways here, it's entirely incumbent on the head coach to make certain his quarterback protect the ball through coaching and play calling. Kelly has been as guilty as Golson. sooner or later the head coach actually has to be, well the man in charge, and in the end he is the one who gets the credit or blame for how his team performs. He has to either instill in Golson the importance of protecting the ball and also has to have his line coaches and runningback's coaches in tune with blocking and picking up blitzes. It falls entirely on Brian Kelly, he's the one steering this boat.

 

[whywork2]

I'm not for getting rid of Kelly but the clock is ticking on him getting things fixed, maybe it's simply benching Everett Golson. That's precisely why he's making the big bucks.

 

[bksballer89]

You and I part ways here, it's entirely incumbent on the head coach to make certain his quarterback protect the ball through coaching and play calling. Kelly has been as guilty as Golson. sooner or later the head coach actually has to be, well the man in charge, and in the end he is the one who gets the credit or blame for how his team performs. He has to either instill in Golson the importance of protecting the ball and also has to have his line coaches and runningback's coaches in tune with blocking and picking up blitzes. It falls entirely on Brian Kelly, he's the one steering this boat.

Golson is a dick. Funny thing about Golson is a lot of his turnovers are fumbles. Golson need to look in the mirror also. I give him a pass for the most part on his ints unless it is a terrible read but his fumbles are just careless plays by him

 

[ChicagoIrish]

Golson lacks football IQ and pocket awareness, I've said it before.

Football IQ can't be taught, you have it or you don't. I agree with whywork on this, Kelly needs to make some changes, either in his play calling to try and protect the team from Golson's mistakes, or making a change at the position altogether.

 

[poewelch84]

kelly can't help golson turn the ball over less. Kelly has been fine. The turnovers is the reason this team is not 9-1 or 10-0, not kelly

It's not all on Kelly and golson does fumble a lot but part of that is because he struggles to pick up the free rusher when he knows they don't have enough guys to block everyone and it has be obvious for some time which Kelly should change the play calling to help in this regard.

 

[poewelch84]

Kelly by and large has done a good job recruiting better athletes, however you can't absolve him from mismanaging position depth on the defense which is why this defense is playing so many young guys.

 

[purguy12]

I disagree Big time. His strength is recruiting and developing these young men. His weakness right now is game management and play calling.

 

[socaljim242]

Kelly by and large has done a good job recruiting better athletes, however you can't absolve him from mismanaging position depth on the defense which is why this defense is playing so many young guys.

The thing is you are rarely going to have depth on all your units. Maybe Alabama can but not even at SC who recruits well did they have that during the Pete years. It was either a great O and a so so D or a great D and an OK Offense.Some times you will have a dominant Defense and an OK offense or a good O and a your secondary is young. A good coach will mask the flaws and not let the other team exploit it or have his team run to keep the other team from abusing your defense or like in the ASU game he should have figured out that they were selling out and going at Golson and ran plays to make them pay. I had that feeling against Boston college earlier in the year. SC kept trying to run when BC loaded the box. USC has NFL receivers ans should have made them pay . Personally I think Kelly relied too much on his QB be the one to take you to the promised land. It's like he spent the last three years waiting for Golson to have this opportunity and it was boom or bust with him and thats why he never sat him down when most think he needed it. No Tommy on the sideline to come in and rescue him this year.

 

[matthstl]

I here everyone on Golson and maybe with national championship gone the signal for Golson should be continue the mistakes and we put in Malek. Personally I would like to see this kid in a game situation. Do we not forget that it was not until few weeks before the season that Golson was announce the starter. Malik had a great spring game.

Kelly is going no where right now and I think the call to leave ND will be his call and it might happen sooner than I fear. Right now his stock has dropped but not to hard. If he loses the next two games his stock will drop hard and if the losses are like the ones they have been past few weeks than his stock will drop even further. I can hear in his voice now the pressure of being ND coach. The pressure and what happen this year with those 5 kids will be enough for him to look else where to better his future.